PWR Final: Gloucester-Hartpury 36-24 Bristol Bears Ladies – Circus retain league title at Sandy Park

By Ben Thorne

A dominant second half display saw Gloucester-Hartpury come from behind to beat Bristol Bears 36-24 in the Women’s Premiership Final to retain the trophy for the second consecutive season.

Bristol had possession and territory in the opening exchanges of the game, scoring three tries in the first half through Courtney Keight, Lark Atkin-Davies and Hannah Botterman.

Co-captain Natasha ‘Mo’ Hunt scored against the run of play midway through the first half to keep Gloucester within striking distance of their opponents, the score at half-time being 17-7.

But the Cherry and White dug deep, scoring four tries in 14 minutes through Pip Hendy, Emma Sing, Mia Venner and Hannah Jones to come back and lift the trophy in front of 6,934 at Sandy Park.

Head coach Sean Lynn reflected on his team’s performance: “I couldn’t be more proud of the team with the number of injuries we’ve had.

“The big message at half-time was that we had to have that belief and execute better when we had the ball in hand and that worked really well for us.

“I’m absolutely looking forward to going back-to-back, the future is bright at Gloucester-Hartpury.”

The Bears started on the front foot, spinning the ball wide to Reneeqa Bonner on the right wing in the 10th minute, who carried deep into the Gloucester-Hartpury 22.

After numerous forward carries, co-captain Abbie Ward crossed the line but the defense covering Cherry and White did enough as Hannah Jones backed her over the line, forcing a goal line clearance.

Bristol continued their dominance of possession and were finally rewarded when Keight crossed from a left-wing corner in the 17th minute to make it 5-0.

But Gloucester fought back when Bethan Lewis found a hole in the Bristol defence; she drove inside the Bears 22 before passing downfield to Hunt, who ran under the posts.

Sing converted, making it 7-5 Gloucester-Hartpury.

Bristol responded almost immediately, winning a penalty scrum midway through the Gloucester-Hartpury half.

Holly Aitchison kicked in the corner to set Atkin-Davies rumbling over the line from behind a maul, putting her side back in front.

The Bears extended their lead late in the first half, with Botterman starting and ending the move with two dominant carries.

Her first saw Bristol break into the Gloucester 22, while her second gave her the opportunity to go over which, combined with Amber Reed’s conversion, made it 17-7 – where it remained until pause.

The Vichy and the Whites started the second half with much more intensity than the first half.

After a series of successful drives, Gloucester found themselves within ten yards of the Bristol line; the play came to Lewis on the right wing where he collected a loose ball and thought he had done enough to convert.

However, Meryl Smith’s hand prevented the back rower from grounding the ball as the TMO disallowed the try.

The Maroons and Whites were patient, keeping the game deep in Bears territory for large stretches of the second half.

A steady mist gave them a nice platform to attack from as they got past Hendy on the left wing who scored in the corner to make it 17-12.

Sing kicked the extra, reducing the gap to just three points.

Gloucester scored again less than four minutes later; they worked the ball up the field before finding Sing, who scored in the same corner as Hendy moments earlier, then converted his own try to give the holders a 21-17 lead on the hour.

The Cherries and the Whites scored again in very similar fashion. Hunt quickly kicked the penalty before the ball was flicked brilliantly along the backline to Venner who scored in the 62nd minute in a corner from the right.

Sing continued his flawless performance off the tee to take the score to 28-17.

Gloucester’s relentless attack was rewarded with a fifth try five minutes later when Jones carried the ball over, again in the right corner, to make it 33-17.

In the 75th minute Bristol enjoyed a period of possession which culminated in a try on the touchline scored by Ella Lovibond, the ball went past the substitute on the left wing where it crashed.

Reed hammered the ball between the posts to cut the deficit to nine with just minutes remaining.

Sing kicked a last-minute penalty through the sticks to make it 36-24 as the Cherry and Whites held on to keep PWR at bay.

GLOUCESTER-HARTPURY:

TRY: 5 (Hunt 25′, Hendy 54′, Sing 58′, Venner 62′, Jones 68′)

CONVERSIONS: 4 (Sing 26′, 55′, 60′, 64′)

PENALTIES: 1 (Sing 79′)

FALL GOALS: 0

YELLOW CARDS: 0

RED CARD: 0

15. Emma Sing 14. Mia Venner 13. Hannah Jones 12. Tatyana Heard 11. Pip Hendy 10. Lleucu George 9. Natasha ‘Mo’ Hunt (co-captain) 1. Mackenzie Carson 2. Neve Jones 3. Maud Muir 4. Sarah Beckett 5. Sam Monaghan 6. Georgia Brock 7. Bethan Lewis 8. Zoe Aldcroft (co-captain)

Substitutes

16. Amy Dale 17. El Perry 18. Sisilia Tuipulotu 19. Kate Williams 20. Steph Else 21. Bianca Blackburn 22. Millie Hyett 23. Rachel Lund

BRISTOL BEARS:

TRYS: 4 (Keight 17′, Atkin-Davies 31′, Botterman 39′, Lovibond 75′)

CONVERSIONS: 2 (Tests 40′, 75′)

PENALTIES: 0

FALL GOALS: 0

YELLOW CARDS: 0

RED CARD: 0

15. Meryl Smith 14. Reneeqa Bonner 13. Phoebe Murray 12. Holly Aitchison 11. Courtney Keight 10. Amber Reed (co-captain) 9. Kiera Bevan 1. Hannah Botterman 2. Lark Atkin-Davies 3. Sarah Bern 4. Delaney Burns 5. Abbie Ward (co-captain) 6. Alisha Joyce-Butchers 7. Evie Gallagher 8. Ronita Marston-Mulhearn

Substitutes

16. Jess Sprague 17. Simi Pam 18. Elliann Clarke 19. Hollie Cunningham 20. Gabriella Nigrelli 21. Lucy Burgess 22. Ella Lovibond 23. Jenny Hesketh